CJRW-FM

CJRW-FM, Spud 102, Summerside

Charles H. Llewellyn applied to operate a 250 watt station at Summerside. The CBC board deferred the application to a later date.

1948

Llewellyn's application was recommended for approval, mainly because the owner of CHGS had given notice that the licence for his station would be relinquished at the end of the present licensing year. CHGS had been on the air since 1926.

CJRW officially began broadcasting on the evening of November 17 - using a frequency of 1240 kHz and a full-time power of 250 watts. Harold E. Gaudet was president and Art Rogers was manager. Two employees from the old CHGS - Robert Schurman and Lowell Huestis - would play a key role in CJRW. Schurman was announcer and Huestis was an operator and host of the Rural Rhythms program.

1949

Slogan: The Voice of Canada's Garden Province.

1950-51

The CBC approved the transfer 30 shares of the Gulf Broadcasting Co. Ltd., with no change in control.

1951

Al Bestall was named manager of CJRW. He had earlier left CKCW Moncton and had planned to leave the radio business.

The CBC approved the transfer of control of Gulf Broadcasting Co. Ltd. from 29 shareholders to J.K. Curran, president of the company.

Bob Schurman was assistant to manager Al Bestall. Ned Conlon (formerly with CKCW and CBC Halifax) was now production manager. Fred Butland (had been with Radio Press) was news editor. Announcer Roy Turner was now continuity editor. Helen Walker was now office manager.

1953

Robert Schurman took over as manager. He did some on-air work at the station. Al Bestall left CJRW to manage CHLO in St. Thomas.

1957

CJRW 1240 had a power of 250 watts (non-directional) and was an independent station with no network affiliation. Ownership of The Gulf Broadcasting Co. Ltd.: J. K. Curran 60.8%, T. E. Hickey 0.2%, T. L. Linkletter 0.2%, F. M. Davidson 2.9%, six other shareholders 35.9%.

Bob Schurman was president of the company and manager of CJRW.

1958

Robert Schurman took control of CJRW. His brother, Paul H., joined the station.

1965

R. C. (Bob) Schurman was president of the Gulf Broadcasting Co. Ltd. He was also CJRW's manager and commercial manager. Paul Schurman was chief announcer, news and sports director and copy chief.

1972

Lowell Huestis was at CJRW.

1983

CJRW celebrated its 35th anniversary with those call letters. Manager Paul Schurman said he was hoping for a power increase to 1,000 watts soon.

1984

CJRW was given approval to increase its daytime power from 250 watts to 1,000 watts on March 8. The power increase should slightly increase the overlap area of the 0.5 mV/m contours of CJRW (1240 kHz) and CKCW Moncton (1220 kHz). The Department of Communications has advised that this overlap would have a minimal effect on CKCW's service.

Approval for a night-time power increase from 250 watts to 1,000 watts was granted on December 13.

1985

The program Rural Rhythms, on CJRW since the station signed on in 1948, aired for the last time.

CJRW was presented with the Gold Ribbon Award for community service from the CAB.

1988

CJRW marked 40 years on the air on November 17. A lot of long-time staff members were on hand to mark the occasion. Paul H. Schurman was now president and general manager of CJRW. Mrs. Robert C. (Lois E.) Schurman was chairman of the board of Gulf Broadcasting. Paul M. Schurman, Robert's son and nephew of Paul H., was assistant general manager and sports director. Lowell Huestis was still with CJRW. He was operations manager, and still on the air. John Perry (at CJRW for 25 years) was program director. Fred MacFarlane was chief engineer (with the station for 32 years). Office manager and accountant Rose Anne Guadet had been with the station for 21 years. Morning man and music director Mike Gallant had been with CJRW for 20 years.

1999

On July 29, CJRW's conversion to the FM band was approved. The new FM station would operate on a frequency of 102.1 MHz with an effective radiated power of 11,000 watts. CJRW stated that it would increase the amount of local news on the station and introduce new spoken word programs such as "Island Legends", "Sounds Like Prince County", "County Corner" and "Earth Patrol", all of which will focus on local artists or issues.

CJRW-AM became CJRW-FM in November and was now known as "C102".

1990

CJRW was getting ready to move to new studios and offices. New equipment would include two 12,000 consoles and the "Studio in a Box" from Arrakis.

Computer Automation was implemented and for the first time, CJRW was able to operate 24 hours a day. (Previously, the station would "sign-off" at 12:10am.) Many hockey games (local and away) were able to be broadcast without any staff in the studio to operate. All Ads were on the computer and music was on CD's.

1997

Ken Kingston succeeded John Perry as news director. Perry left 1240 CJRW All-Hit Country after 33 years with the station. He had also hosted a talk program.

Mike Gallant was morning man.

1998

CJRW celebrated its 50th birthday in November.

1998-99

The Computer automation system was upgraded. No more CD's. All Music and commercials were now on computer.

2000

After building the new FM transmitter site and completing the move from AM to FM, Steve Harvey left CJRW to pursue other career options. He is wound up serving in the Canadian Forces.

2001

On August 10, the CRTC approved the transfer of the effective ownership and control of The Gulf Broadcasting Co. Ltd. (Paul Schurman and family) to Maritime Broadcasting System Ltd. MBS would purchase a minimum of 512 common shares of Gulf, representing approximately 92.9% of the company's authorized capital. MBS owned CFCY-AM and CHLQ-FM in Charlottetown, and also operated CHTN in that city under the terms of a Local Management Agreement with the station's owner, NewCap Inc.

2002

Maritime closed on its purchase of CJRW-FM Summerside in February.

On March 28, Maritime Broadcasting System Ltd. received authority to acquire the assets of CJRW-FM from The Gulf Broadcasting Co. Ltd. The transaction does not alter the effective ownership and control of the station. Last year, the CRTC approved the transfer of ownership and control of Gulf to Maritime.

2006

On September 1, CJRW-FM changed from "C102" with a Country format to "SPUD FM" with a Classic Rock format.

2007

CJRW-FM switched format from Classic Rock to Classic Hits. It is still known as "Spud FM".

2011

On August 31, the CRTC administratively renewed the licence for CJRW-FM until March 31, 2012.

2012

On March 20, the CRTC administratively renewed the licence for CJRW-FM to August 31, 2012. On August 28, the licence was administratively renewed to December 31, 2012. On December 19, the licence was renewed to August 31, 2019.

The story continues elsewhere...Effective September 1st 2019, we will only be adding new material to these station histories in exceptional circumstances. Our intent to chronicle the early days of these radio and television stations has been achieved, and many new sources and technologies, from the CRTC website to Wikipedia, and others, are now regularly providing new information in these areas.